Upon retiring from the Army 1988, Pallaske cared for his mother in Germany until her death in 1994, then settled in Bandera.

A short man with a thick German accent and bristling mustache, he helped establish a local Boys & Girls Club and an annual event commemorating veterans and was working to get a Vietnam War memorial built.

“He was determined, pleasant, trustworthy and organized,” as well as stubborn on issues he believed in, Smith said. “You could argue with him, but you could never change his mind.”

And Pallaske arranged it so he'll always be part of this small town.

“Horst asked me to drop his ashes over Bandera from my airplane,” resident George Hamilton said. “I told him I would.”